Grievance at work. Should I bother?

FOXGLOVE_2

I work part time (16.5 hours per week) and have been left really unhappy today over my bosses organisation of holidays. I work Monday, Thursday and Sunday and this week I had booked off these three days.

The sticking point is that I do a job in a company where only me and this other girl who is full time, are trained and know how to do it. I normally cover her holidays and she mine.

I had planned to take Thursday Sunday and Monday off and had recently completed my holiday request form for the year and had been anxious that my boss hadn't confirmed that I was allowed the holidays I booked. Initially they were changed as my co-worker was moving house and I was happy to do this. However, he had also promised her this bank holiday Monday off - one of the days that I had asked for. We alternate bank holidays and she worked the last one before she knew she was moving house.

She came to me today and said that she is definitely taking it as he told her it was ok.. at that time my holidays were in a different week but now since they've been brought forward I'm having to work the Monday and instead of getting a long week off (where I planned to go away), I have to cut my holiday in half for the sake of working one day.

Monday is the busiest day as we finalise all the weeks work and have to make sure the numbers balance. We both used to work on Monday but he is short staffed in another dept so he moved her there on a Monday while I did the work alone. My co-worker came to me today and said that last time I was off on Sunday (the only Sunday I've ever had off, the only day off I share with my other half...) she came in on Monday and found that it was impossible to balance everything as the previous days work was still outstanding and a new week had begun (I don't know how to describe it... ) so she said that if I took Sunday off I would be alone on Monday with about 3 days of work. It's made me feel reluctant to take and enjoy my holiday as I will create a huge mess for myself when I return.

We have campaigned for my boss to train another person to do our job as this is becoming unworkable and neither of us able to book a fortnights holiday. My boss is pretty hopeless and me and my co-worker ususally have to arrange something ourselves.

All I'm trying to do is book my holidays - which everyone else seems to be able to do and not have to worry about coming back to a mountain of work as their workload is delegated out when they're away. I have often felt that I am left to pick up the pieces as I am part time and my co-worker often calls the shots on stuff like this. I spoke to my boss today about this and explained that I am very unhappy that due to no one else being trained, I feel punished for taking holidays and the only person to suffer for me being off is me.

He is used to me just saying yes to everything but this time I am not happy and want something done about it. I am applying for jobs elsewhere right now as it's gotten to a point where I don't need a reason to leave, I need a reason to stay.

Tired of accepting this way of working and now considering raising a grievance but since I know I will be leaving as soon as I find something else, should I bother and would it go against me when it comes to references.

Part of me wants to just suck it up and remind myself that I will be out of there one day soon but I really have had enough and feel that the problem needs to be addressed before I explode at my exit interview.

Northerness

No point in raising a grievance if you're leaving.

No point in exploding at your exit interview when you're leaving.

I'd only suggest raising a grievance in severe cases of bullying/harassment/racism/threatening behaviour. Otherwise, I'd just accept that the job isn't for me and get on with things whilst I found a new job.

If you want to get one up in them when you leave, give them some happy and smiley constructive feedback - this will wind them up more than going mad at them, trust me. Plus you'll get your references, no problem.

However, if you start putting the world to rights, they'll just think "phew, thank God we've got rid of that one".

Kynthia

If you have a civil and constructive conversation with your boss about the problems above with only having two of you trained and the workload on certain days being excessive. Explain the difficulty in taking leave, the reluctance to take long family holidays, the risk of work not being completed on Mondays and the concern regarding what would happen if one of you was sick when the other was on holiday. Then state due to the effect it's having on you, you have been considering looking for another job whose hours more suit you. However you would be much happier if he would consider training up a third member of staff and how it would give resiliance and ensure deadlines were met.

Try to leave your emotions out of it and don't say how you're worse of than your colleague or you feel victimised. Keep it factual and practical. If you feel that you might not get the message accross well then put it in writing as you can review it and it's harder for your work to ignore.

They should hopefully see the logic in your argument and want to avoid the cost and effort of replacing an experience member of staff.